Ms Sin?ad McGrath:

Everything we do goes back to the same basic structure that we would have done with higher education institutes in the first place and that we have done with the schools, as Dr. MacNeela talked about. For further education and training, including Youthreach, it was a whole new world. Some of its students and learners would never have had this opportunity to discuss consent or anything like that before. We had to do the same thing, building relationships, assessing their needs, seeing where it would fit, what the barriers were, how they would have time to attend training, who would support them, and providing them with other educational opportunities.

As Dr. MacNeela said, for people to be put in this space, they have to be trained. We have given them other opportunities, first point of contact and disclosure training, and continuing professional development within the university structure too. They have a greater understanding. When we start with that, it is networking and assessing their needs. A significant part of it is the whole school and whole college approach. We would do awareness sessions for all staff. To me, that was the most successful part of the buy-in from all staff, because then everybody knew what we were about. They knew that we were research-based and that it was safe. We have been in this space for ten years, especially Dr. MacNeela and Dr. O'Higgins. We know it works. We have researched it in the context of tens of thousands of students. That buy-in was significant.

For example, we have done much work on one particular post-leaving certificate course provider in the Kerry region. It had a teacher, who was the deputy principal, who did the online training with Dr. O'Higgins. She rolled out active consent workshops in the college but she needed support to take the next step. I went and did two hours of awareness training with all staff. It is not good enough for them to say that they are not doing that and it is not our concerns. To change the culture that Dr. MacNeela and Professor Crowley are talking about, everybody has to be involved. Then I went back and did all-day training of 34 staff. All the staff except one attended the training. They will not all facilitate training but they will know and have a greater understanding of what we can do to prevent sexual violence and harassment and make a safer place for everybody who attends that college. It has rolled out the introductory workshop to all its more than 700 students. Now it is moving to face-to-face workshops, supported with its messaging and by some of its staff accessing some of our education opportunities.